ATL89FA213 · Beech 100
Beech 100 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL) to M25
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA213
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 6 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 100
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 100
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N887PE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FLTo M25
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING ARRIVAL, THE FLT WAS ISSUED THE CURRENT PADUCAH ALTIMETER SETTING. THE PLT REQUESTED VECTORS FOR AN APCH TO RWY 18, BUT THE ARTCC CONTROLLER (CTLR) COULD NOT ACCOMMODATE THE REQUEST. THE PLT WAS CLRD FOR A VOR/DME-A APCH. MDA FOR THE APCH WAS 1080' MSL (600' AGL). AT 2108 CDT, THE FLT CHGD TO THE FBO FREQ. FBO PSNL OBSERVED THE ACFT FLY OVER THE ARPT & ADZD THAT IT WAS TOO LOW. ONE OF THE PLTS REPLIED THAT THEY WOULD BE 'STAYING UNDER THE CLOUDS.' THE PLTS HAD PLANNED TO LAND ON RWY 36, BUT RPRTD THEY LOST SIGHT OF THE RWY & WOULD CHANGE TO RWY 18. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A TREE ABOUT 1 MI NNE OF THE ARPT, WHILE ON A WESTERLY HDG (APRX PSN OF BASE LEG FOR A VFR PATTERN). THE ACFT CAME TO REST ABT 700' WEST OF THE TREE & WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT & FIRE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT WAS FND. APRX 30 MI WEST AT PADUCAH, THE WX WAS IN PART: 200' SCATTERED, 900' OVC VIS 3 MI WITH RAIN & FOG, WND FM 360 DEG AT 7 KTS. THE ARPT MANAGER ESTIMATED THERE WAS A 200' CEILING AT THE ARPT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW IFR PROCEDURES AND MAINTAIN THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (MDA). FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE TREE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA213
- Event ID
- 20001213X29291
- Case number
- ATL89FA213
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-09-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 064e3ef7678ce0224a278428e2e9b96f2c77053c82bf66e3871d12b119ccd221; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:09:30.558Z.